Allagash Barrel Aged Four

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Portland, Maine USA

Tap at BCTC 2006. Cloudy light brown with a small white head. Forestry and caramel smell. Taste is whiskey type of single-malt, nutty and tree bark. Manages to have some hop presence despite its very intense malt character. 10% is not too apparent. To my great surprise I found it refreshing!!! Aged four, wow, can you imagine what it will be when it’s a grown up.

BCTC. Nose is burbon, brown sugar, plum/tobacco. Flavor is really well rounded but still definetly burboned. Wood, smoke, sweet caramel. Burns a bit as it goes down.

On tap at The Belgian Room. Deep reddish copper in color with a nice tan head. Fruity and oaky aroma. Vanilla notes. Fruity and malty flavor. Oak notes. Bourbon. Medium bodied. Finish is oaky. Good.

On tap at the Belgian Room. Reddish brown with a small but sturdy head. Taste is sour cherry abd apple before the smooth, wet wood kicks in. The warming abv is less noticeable as it warm. Too bad the wood takes away more than it adds. A nice find though.

Barrel aging is blatantly obvious in the nose but somehow the fact that it is so assertive really seems to work for me with this beer on this occasion. Vanilla, bourbon, alcohol, and fruity esters in the aroma. Hazy reddish-brown coloured body with a low white head that recedes rapidly to a very slight ring. Some nutty character survives the huge bourbon and alcohol flavour along with a sweet, round caramel malt base. Medium light body is both watery and sticky with somewhat low carbonation. Though it is interesting, barrel aging seems to have taken an excellent beer down a few notches. This is nothing I would seek out again while the regular version is certainly something I would always consider purchasing. Sampled on tap at the Extreme Beer Fest 2006.

Hazy peat moss colored, its light off-white head quickly dies. A somewhat complex nose, minty, leafy, brandy nuanced in its woodiness, some pleasant oak notes, but undeniably bourbon dominated, drowned in bourbon even as the strong alcohol masks a good part of the ABTor quad fruity character. Sure the bourbon appears fairly integrated, it’s not done by novices, but it nonetheless diminishes the interest, sweetening the whole process with strong toffee component and chocolate powder, after eight minty, woody flavours that grow oily. Watery edges betray the stolen character from the barrel, I certainly don’t remember the Four as being light-medium bodied at best and oily at that rather than Belgian carbonated. You feel the dying presence of grapes underneath, drowning, the background earthiness, drowning. Bourbon is stronger than beer, a lesson to remember. It’s a matter of personal preferences really, because I can see myself falling in love with the same beer done in a bordeaux barrel à la Stille Nacht.

Sample at EBF 2006. Murky dark amber-orange with almost no head....raisins and currants are the dominant first scents wafting out, grapiness and oaky barrel character last throughout, light caramel-burnt notes as well...the body is quite luscious, sweet raisingy-vanilla, basically echoing the fragrance...carbonation is as noted before very low, though this works for me as this is quite candy-like and not meant in the least bit to be refreshing or I think drunk in quantity. A rare sipping beer, perhaps a little over-the-top in its whiskeyish component and no improvement on the original, but fascinating nonetheless.

Any first impressions?
-A ring of head surrounds the cloudy, dull red blanket.
-A portentous barrel perfume surges from the glass, yet fits exquisitely with the caramelized raisins, blackberries, and other dark fruit.
-Alcohol heat is felt a little too much, perhaps due to the important barrel apport.
-The low carbonated mouthfeel is a bit lazy for my taste.

What if you dig deeper?
-Cherries and pepper emerge after the barrel aroma slightly subsides, once you get used to it that is.
-Nutty, almond sweetness walks with melons and cantaloups.
-Sweetness is a little one-dimensional in the end, which might displease some.
-The barrel use is a little too strong imho, as in most of Allagash’s barrel-aged beers. But this doesn’t take away anything from the fact that this is a flavorful, well-designed brew.

Sampled at Extreme Beer Fest ’06.